Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8/10

Cast: Francesca Davies, Gillian Hardie, Hayley Davies, Nick Sheedy, James Ledsham, Katie King, Danny Woods, Sophie Tickle, Mike Howl, Rob Boyle.

The Cavern in Liverpool is a place of dreams. Even today, long since its golden age and the days in which the Beatles gave all who made their way to the venue a glimpse of the future. It has the power to bestow a certain magic on the thought of artists performing there and the memories of long since departed audiences, the thought of music history forever encased into the walls is one in which visitors clamber over themselves to see.

For one young woman and a city still recovering after the ravages of World War Two and the destruction that rained down on the streets and buildings that make up the iconic cultural capital, The Cavern was the place to be. Beryl Hogg was to change history, she was too become the female sound of Merseybeat. A change of name later but the same unrelenting, wonderful feisty nature she would keep to this very day and the music scene had a new hero.

One Dream: The Beryl Marsden Story was one in which certainly showcased the very talented women on stage. From the great Gillian Hardie, who seemed in her element as she sang her heart out on stage as the more mature Beryl and for who was as wonderfully cast as you could want, to the young blossoming aptitude of Francesca Davies as the young girl with just one thing on her mind, the chance to sing.  Both these women stood up to the very high ideal of trying to capture a slice of time in which many living in the city may have forgotten about, the difficulties that young women faced after the war trying to make a mark in society and for whom the chance to do something remarkable was not seemly.

The reminder that such was the attitude of the period, that the only jobs that mattered to young women was the chance to perhaps work in the Pools industry or in a local retail firm, the chance to dream and show some imagination lost as real talent, the obvious ability that Beryl Marsden had would have been lost to outdated convention.

With the great lady herself coming on at the end of the play and performing several songs for the audience, time itself seemed to be held back for a while. For all inside the Epstein Theatre, the chance to relive the glory days of one of the first young female post-war singers, the occasion of capturing the essence of what drove one young woman, from the triumph and to the near disasters and low points driven by abuse and alcohol was one to savour.

Ian D. Hall